Martin Scorsese should have an Oscar – Martin Scorsese should have a fistful of Oscars. A fistful in both hands. He is a legend of cinema, with talent enough that he can hop genres and eras with relative ease, making his style fit them all, no matter how disparate then may be. Better, he’s been consistently good for more than four decades, without the flameout in quality you get from many other so-called legends.[1] Add to that he’s a student of film and treats it legitimately, and reverently, as art, and you can see why he should have more Oscars than he know what to do with.

But he doesn’t have more Oscars than he knows what to do with – he only has the one. Not for directing Raging Bull or Goodfellas, but as director of The Departed.

As with many of the films in this series – at least of the ones I’d seen before – I hadn’t laid eyes on Chicago in close to a decade before jotting down my take on it. Sometimes, not having seen the film in years and forcing myself to revisit worked a detriment of the film, in that it made films I one enjoyed, seem a bit less than I thought they were – I’m looking at you A Beautiful Mind. Sometimes, it only confirmed what I already knew – hello Gladiator. So, in returning to it, Chicago faced the very real danger that while I once liked it a lot, I’d suddenly loathe it. Fortunately – if you can call a middling response something of a fortune – I reacted to Chicago this time largely the same way I reacted to it last time. Then, as now, I saw a film with parts I was fond of/blown away by, and parts I could have done without. And perhaps in the most honest assessment a person can give, after having watched it again this time I suspect the DVD will do as it did before – it will go back into my collection and sit for another decade, if not more, collecting dust.

In honor of the ending of 30 Rock this week – easily one of the two greatest TV shows of all time – it’s time to break down it’s ten best episodes, if only to remind myself of the excellence that will henceforth live only in re-runs.

10. Jackie Jormp-Jomp (Season 3)

Prior to this episode, Liz had attempted to use her sexuality to stop cutbacks from effecting TGS – a common threat over the course of 30 Rock. Of course, her reward is a suspension for sexual harassment and having to deal with everybody’s favorite transgender-HR specialist, Jeffery Weinerslav. During her suspension, she tries to find a way to fill the time and finally falls in with some women in her building, going to spas and having massages all day, which is something she could definitely get used to. Except, their perfect existence is not exactly what it seems and requires other stimuli to sustain them. Two words: Fight Club. Continue reading →